An Empty Farewell
by Rothalion
Summary: A short tale about the memorial for Alice after Shanghai.
1. Chapter 1

_**An Empty Farewell**_

_**ONE**_

_Devastation's Knocking_

_Annapolis, Maryland_

Fifty-five year old Gilbert Billy Murray dragged the damp, impeccably white towel across his sweat soaked, gray stubbled face and groaned. It was 0500 hours and he'd been working out since 0230. Age, for the Chief Warrant Officer Five, was no excuse for slacking off, and after nearly thirty-nine years of service the old routine was more than familiar to him. For a moment, he gazed out across the bay enjoying the view. He and his wife Page, also a CWO 5, had worked hard to afford the modest Cape Cod style home overlooking the Chesapeake and he felt no guilt for enjoying its creature comforts. They'd retire there eventually, but for at least the next ten years the Navy would remain their life.

He swung the towel over his left shoulder and crossed the atrium gym to the treadmill. Before starting the machine, he reached for a remote control and clicked on the forty-two inch television hanging from the wall just to the left of the machine so as not to obstruct the gym's view of the glistening bay. He set the channel to the morning news and switched on the treadmill. It was Wednesday and he'd do six miles at a brisk rate mostly up a slight incline to maximize his workout. Gil, as his friends called him, was no longer an active SEAL, but one never knew when that type of duty would again be necessary so, he stayed in perfect physical condition.

As the sun rose and slowly burned off the fog, he settled into his pace and began to focus on the droning reporter. Always the same, he thought. A car bomb here, a serious threat there and combined with the never ending moronic rhetoric of the office insulated talking heads describing how they planned to save the world the news sickened and enraged him. From the age of seventeen he'd been military. He was a doer, an achiever and the thought that these bureaucrats would or could sit at the safety of their desks thousands of miles from conflict zones and dictate protocol galled him. Page harbored the same opinion, which was why, after so many years of faithful service and sacrifice they refused to give up.

That thought brought him round to wondering how Alice, his thirty-eight year old daughter, was fairing. Just as her parents had done, she'd entered into service immediately after high school, attending Annapolis with a full scholarship and graduating with honors. They'd been proud and felt that, as a family, they might make a difference albeit just a small one. Then, after ten years of an extraordinary career in the NSA, for reasons that she refused to disclose, she resigned her commission and moved into the private sector as a contract writer and mission runner for Security and Strategy Corporation, one of the largest private military contracting firms in the world. At first, the trio fought bitterly over her mysterious decision, but then after two years of quarrelling they reunited and had been close ever since.

When SSC collapsed, the couple hoped that the brilliant strategist would find a new path, and as time wore on and Alice plied away her life in a sort of early retirement their hopes grew. Then, nearly two years later, out of the blue, Tyson Rios made contact. Somehow, he'd managed to find backing for him and Elliot Salem to start their own firm, Trans World Operations, and they wanted Alice on board. Desperate to be back in the game, she jumped at the opportunity; convinced and hopeful that since they were now their own bosses they could finally do good honest work.

A large flock of ducks burst up from the water's edge drawing his attention from the current talking head and he smiled at the whirling flock of dark hued birds. They whirled round for a bit before settling again and with frightening precision returned to their places floating on the gently roiling waves. He continued to observe them until the reporter's voice hitched slightly and the handsome man cleared his throat. The odd gaff in television decorum caught Gil's ear and he looked up at the screen.

"We need to interrupt our normal morning coverage with this breaking news. I also have to warn you that some of the following footage is raw and some may find it disturbing. This is amateur footage out of Shanghai, China. At 4:30 a.m. EST, reports began to filter in of a devastating terrorist attack on Shanghai. As the footage clearly shows, this modern city, after two days of constant bombardment, is in ruins. The death toll is in the tens of thousands and thus far no group has taken responsibility. As of 1:45 P.M. EST yesterday, the U.N. has been in control and the attack seems to have been stopped. This is all we know so far. Several nations are sending rapid aid and several terrorists groups are adamantly denying involvement. Amateur reporters are now beginning to get information out of the devastation, via hobbled together communication links, and these have named, what is called, the Fortieth Day Initiative. They are also bandying about the name Jonah Wade. United States and European security agencies are so far denying knowledge of the group or Wade, bringing into question how such a huge and well-structured attack could have gone un-noticed…"

Gil turned off the treadmill and stepped carefully off. Alice had mentioned going to Shanghai that month to sign several contracts with the South African Embassy located there. He strode quickly into the house meeting his petite wife on the way who, despite being one of the strongest woman he'd ever encountered, was pale and trembling.

He grasped her by the shoulders, leaned down to make eye contact and spoke in a firm voice.

"If she's there, 'if' she's there, she'll find a way to safety. She's good at what she does and she'll be fine. We can't jump to conclusions and we can't panic over what we have absolutely no control over. I'm going to shower and then, we go to work. I'll call Rios now. Make coffee, get dressed, Page. We're soldiers, all three of us, and this is part of the deal."

He left her standing at the doorway of the atrium looking out across the bay, and headed for the bathroom. He grabbed his phone along the way and dialed Alice. It rang until voicemail picked up; he then dialed Rios and got the same result. For the moment that was the extent of his options, so he got into the shower and began to wash the grime of his morning exercise away. Ten minutes later he was finished and toweling off, when Page came into the well-appointed master suite. She was no longer pale, but her dark brown eyes were bright with un-shed tears and her lips pursed.

"Ernest Stockwell called. He called to say that it doesn't look good. Alice was in the South African Embassy when it began. She was taken hostage. Rios and Elliot were apparently there too, in Shanghai, on a small op for what it now appears was for this Jonah Wade madman. T.W.O. was led to believe that they were planting tracking devices to monitor an internal threat for the Shanghai government, but Ernest thinks that Wade was playing both sides getting good men to set the stage for the attack under the guise of selling protection to Shanghai. It's all so convoluted, Gil. The boys rescued her and then, comms became difficult. She called in a chopper, the guys fought to the end of the Bund, but…"

She stopped and the tears began to slip down her partially made up cheeks. Then, recalling Gil's admonition to be strong, she took a deep breath and went on.

"But, the final comms were of the pilot issuing a mayday, that they'd been hit by anti-air flack and then, nothing. It gets crazier. Rios had to shoot Elliot to get to Wade; he's in critical condition in Beijing. It seems they stopped the attack, but he reports that they watched Alice's chopper careen into a high rise, and that it and the building crashed into the bay. There was nothing they could do, but go to ground, re-group and go after Wade. That's all he has. He'll be in touch.

I already called us in, so that we can go to Atlanta. Stockwell sent five teams and Dragon's Breath, out of Vermont, has sent ten, to do a search, but with the devastation I saw…we've lost her Gil, our little girl is dead!"


	2. Chapter 2

_TWO_

_The Incredulity of Truth_

The flight to Atlanta was filled with stunned passengers chattering about the horrific events of the previous day. The news coming out of Shanghai was so incredulous that believing it was near impossible. How could one deranged man conceive and carry out such mass destruction right under the ultra-secure government of China's watchful eyes? For Gil and Page it became an emotional roller coaster. Much of the scant information being disseminated concerned the roles played by several private military contracting firms in the catastrophe. Top among them was Alice's T.W.O. It had been T.W.O. that had stopped the attack, so they were continually mentioned in the news releases. Unfortunately, early reports and information that Stockwell had provided made it painfully clear that T.W.O. had helped plant the 'beacons' which were now known to have been targeting devices for air to ground and sea to ground missiles.

"I really wish that they would all just shut the hell up until we have more accurate information." Page spat disgusted by the comments of the obese man seated behind them. "He really shouldn't pass judgment until all the facts are collected."

"I know honey, but they don't have the inside intell like we do. We know that Alice would not have signed that contract had she known what the Wade had planned. He played Shanghai, he played China and if anyone is to blame it's them. If they had a home grown threat severe enough that they stooped to contracting a private firm to monitor it, then they have some serious problems. Wade probably fermented the threat just to be able to sell his wares to them. It's not as if we have never stirred up the hornet's nest, so that we could come running to the rescue. My question is, why bother to hire the other firms to plant the beacons?"

"To eliminate them, Gil. Get them off of the playing board. The news said that several of the rescued operators, not hired for Wade's private army of Mercs, claimed that they were targeted by Wade's men and systematically wiped out. Three firms claim to have lost their entire crews. If the other countries failed to respond, then China would have to turn to more PMC's and the way he planned it there would be none to call upon. He'd have complete control."

Gil looked out of the small window at the passing landscape and sighed. She was, of course, correct. It was from Page that Alice had garnered her un-canny insight into strategy, and logical thought. He was a superb operator, but he lacked the ability to unite disparate bits of intell and to see more than just a few steps into a situation. Conversely, Alice and her mother could see the many intricate and intertwining outcomes of that situation and make very concise and accurate assessments from those extrapolations. Both women played Chess at nearly the master level.

"Yea, you're right about that. Still, we won't know until we get to Stockwell and we hear from Rios and Elliot."

His cell phone vibrated and he held it for a moment before actually looking at it.

"Ernest?"

"Yea." He replied hoarsely, pressing the button, and then, after squeezing his eyes shut briefly, read her the text, "Rios being de-briefed in Beijing. CIA, NSA, U.N. ect.. All boots on the ground including DBA and cleared by U.N. to search Bund. Salem still in surgery and critical. Chopper awaits at ATL. Escort at your arrival terminal. E.S.."

"That was concise."

"I'm certain him and Cha Min are buried in security briefings. Also, every acronym agency you can think of will be crawling all over them right now. I just have to believe that Alice vetted this guy Wade, and that he had his shit so well planned out that no one would have been able to see his true intention."

"Yes, Gil and Shanghai obviously vetted him as well. So, like you said the ultimate fault is theirs"

"I just feel for the regular folks, Pagey. The folks with family over there as tourists. I keep seeing that poor girl on the video loop being killed by that bus. She was clearly on vacation. Poor kid. Her family will probably never have any resolution. Us, well, despite how we feel about PMC's and what they stand for, at least we have them looking for our little girl."

Forty minutes later the Murrays were badged through T.W.O.s security and taken to the main office suite. Stockwell was still in a briefing with the Department of Homeland Security and the CIA, and Cha Min Soo had flown out to manage the situation in Asia. They were shown to a nicely decorated sitting area, offered coffee and lunch and told it would not be long. During his tenure in the Navy Gil had, on twelve occasions, informed families of the loss of their loved ones. It was a thankless, agonizing duty and one he was glad to have avoided for the last several years. Despite his awareness of the pain it caused, he'd never truly anticipated being on the receiving end of that heart breaking message. Page dragged him from his thoughts.

"I wonder how Elliot is doing. I wonder if anyone has talked to Vasily? They are so close. It was such a fun time when they stopped in for that week last year. Elliot is just so special. How could Rios have shot him? What could have caused that to happen?"

"Yea, he's a piece of work that boy." Gil replied absently, while staring up at the looping, breaking news on the sixty inch, high definition monitor in the corner of the room, "I think he was uncomfortable sleeping with Vasily under our roof. It was pretty cute really. I'd wager that the big Russian didn't get as much as a peck on the cheek for the entire week. Look, there's a shot of the Bund. It's utterly destroyed. How in God's name did they fight their way through that. They should never even have made it to the end to meet the chopper. All of that and then to lose it and Alice when they were so close. Honey, I have to say, it doesn't look good."

"And Samantha, has anyone thought to call her? I should, she should be here too. I…"

"Page, Ernest has lost men before, they have SOP in place for this, I am sure everyone has been contacted."

Again she ignored his assessment of the scene on the monitor. She was in denial, he thought. Well, what mother wouldn't be? Sure, she was military, but all of the rationalizing one could muster seemed to go out of the window when it was your child missing and presumed dead. Denial was a destructive emotion though, and it worried him. He'd seen men destroyed by it. False or foolish hope was equally as bad, and if Rios' brief, fragmented report was even partially true Alice was dead; buried in an enormous mound of twisted steel and concrete. Finding the chopper was probably impossible, let alone her and the crew's bodies. He supposed there was a slight chance that she'd been blown free, but knowing Alice and the firm's attention to safety, she'd most assuredly been strapped in. If the pilot had managed to right the shattered chopper, then, maybe they might have had the time to un-hook and jump, but from what Rios had reported the bird had gone down with catastrophic speed, a situation that unfortunately didn't lend itself to setting a badly damaged helicopter down gently.


	3. Chapter 3

_Hushed Words of Horror_

Despite the promise of a quick meeting with Ernest Stockwell the Murrays were told that it would instead be several hours. Did they want to wait or be taken to a nearby hotel? They opted to wait. The courteous gentlemen assigned to attend to their needs nodded and offered to show them to the chow facility. They accepted his invitation and followed along while he updated them as best that he could.

"Rios is still being interrogated. He…"

Page interrupted him, "Not de-briefed, but interrogated?"

"It seems so. All of the operators that survived and were not part of Wade's private army have been placed in detention by the U.N.. We don't think it really means anything. All of their firms, us included, were led to believe that Shanghai and not Wade were the primary client, and that Wade was a sub-contractor, if you will. It's a very tangled up mess, but fortunately everyone's contracts bear up under scrutiny. Here we are. It's not much, but we ordered in a good caterer and I think that you will find the meal quite good. Grab some chow and I'll meet you at that table."

The couple moved along the line filling their plates with expertly cooked prime Rib, New Potatoes, beautifully grilled Asparagus and steamed Broccoli before grabbing ice cold sweet tea. They moved to where the man told them to be seated and dug into the meal with lackluster appetites. Both knew that eating was imperative to maintaining their strength, so they forced the fine food down. Finally, he returned with a plate of his own.

"I failed to introduce myself. I've worked with Murray and the team for years, but for whatever odd reason we haven't ever actually met. Phil Guidry, call me Giddy."

The three exchanged handshakes, and continued to eat. Page finally, broke the silence.

"Elliot is in Beijing in critical condition. What do you know about that?"

"Not much, and if you can please just be patient about the details it will all be discussed soon. One reason we are holding off is that Samantha and Vasily are enroute. That way the intell gets clearer and we can all sit down and knock the briefing out at once instead of repeating it."

"So, Rios is in 'custody'."

Giddy shrugged took a sip of his Cream Soda and nodded.

"Yea Mr. Murray. An un-official tally of operators lost is at about 250 men right now and we expect that to rise. I have a bit more liberty with you two due to your high security clearances. This Wade apparently intended to severely weaken, as many PMC's as possible. He had them scattered throughout the city doing his bidding. None were aware of the others' presence. When the beacons were finalized and he hit the switch, his men began executing the operators. They had to fight to escape. There are also several men that, once they fully realized Wades intentions were so flawed, they defected and also faced execution. Rios mentioned Murray talking about kill lists and Wade's men going office to office. It's a mess."

"When will Rios be cut lose? And call me Gil."

"No telling. I saw the short web call from him and he's a mess. I know all he wants to do is go find your daughter's re… well…"

"It's alright, Giddy, we saw the video of the Bund and…"

"It's not alright!" Page screeched drawing the attention of some of the other diners, "Until we have proof, she is not remains. I won't have her discussed like she's a piece of meat I…"

"That's enough, Page! Phil did not mean any disrespect and I think that given the current condition of the Bund we have to be realistic. Alice is gone. She is gone and there is very little chance that we will recover her. I apologize, Giddy. We're military, sure, but when it's your own kid, your little girl, it's just so hard to grasp."

"None needed. I was…well this is… we all love her so much."

"Rios must be going crazy. He can't do anything and that's the worst feeling. Page, try to eat a bit more, it's going to be a long night."

"I know. Wade, who is this Jonah Wade?"

"Merc, ex-military, they don't have much. Made his money in oil and textiles, got the businesses from his old man and grandfather and grew them. Apparently became disillusioned with society and its greed and selfishness and cooked up a way to teach the world a lesson. It'll be some time before they figure it out. I guess he has a 5000 plus word manifesto and he had his mercs booby trap his oils fields and factories. Several blew before they figured it all out."

"How did this teach us anything?" Page snapped out.

"Your guess is as good as mine. Finish up, change of plans again. Sam and Vasily will be here in twenty mikes, so Stockwell wants us now. Apparently, Rios somehow finagled a live video link, so we will see him during the de-brief."


	4. Chapter 4

_FOUR_

_Empty Eyes, Shattered Souls_

Giddy led the Murrays back to the main office suites and guided them into a large briefing room. Both were stunned at the technology ringing the immaculate space. It rivaled anything that they'd encountered in an actual government facility. Huge ultra-high definition monitors circled the room and in the center was a huge oblong oak table with keyboards and smaller screens built into its surface. The chairs were ergonomically designed for comfort during long watches and several clocks, both digital and analog set to all of the time zones covered part of another wall. He ushered them down toward the end of the table and asked them to be seated.

"Stockwell will be here shortly, I need to fetch Vasily and Samantha, as well as the families of the chopper crew."

While they waited two men entered the room, they recognized them from photographs as part of Alice's team. Both stood to shake hands.

"Hello, we're Alice's parents. I'm Gil and this is Page her mother."

Heckler sighed and stepped forward. He grasped Gil's out stretched and squeezed it. He felt horrible. Since word of the disaster had reached them, he'd been an emotional wreck; slamming from devastated at their loss to enraged at having to watch the blown op come apart and at his inability to do anything. He'd been uncomfortable not sending the entire team, but Murray had insisted that the contract was a two man op and that Rios and Salem could manage it. Besides, she'd argued, she wanted Rios to meet the South African Ambassador. It would be good business for a co-owner to have a face to face with a lucrative new client.

"Heckler, and this is Secour. I'm sorry, but it was out of our hands."

"No problem. You're here now and we all have each other. I don't know why Alice never made a better effort to get us all together years ago."

"I don't know. We were all pretty shocked when she told Fifty and Tyannikov to visit. It's maybe just that she wanted work and life separate."

Before they could all sit again, Giddy returned with Vasily and Samantha. Page stunned them all by immediately embracing the big Russian.

"Shh. Shh, if she is there they'll find her." He soothed holding her tightly, "But I must be clear, honest" he pushed her back a bit and locked eyes with her, "I do not think, after seeing devastation, that much hope lives. I share your sorrow. I am here for both of you. Now come, come and sit."

Stockwell finally arrived looking exhausted. His already thin features were gaunter and his eyes red from lack of sleep. He motion to Secour to turn on the screens and took a seat at the head of the table. Before speaking he took off his loosened tie and rolled up the rumpled sleeves of his light blue shirt. Finally he removed his T.W.O cap ran a liver spot speckled hand through his thinning hair and replaced the gray hat.

"Dauad, bring coffee. Anyone want anything different pipe up. Fine, Dauad make it happen son, don't forget the creams and such."

He cleared his throat and flipped open a thick folder. After shuffling round in it for a bit, he began taking out thick reams of stapled papers and sliding them to each person seated at the table.

"This is the contract Murray wrote, and I approved. You don't need to read it all just now, but I thought, due to the circumstances, you were all owed complete transparency. Do we all know one another?"

A choir of grumbled yeses went round and Dauad returned with an enticingly fragrant coffee service. He served the group while they thumbed through the contract, and once finished stepped aside awaiting his next order.

"Secour?"

"On line in thirty seconds with a live, secured U.N. drone feed, a satellite feed from one of ours, a German sat feed, a Google feed, and a Russian feed. We may get lucky and the feed from our teams and DBA's teams from there body cams will come up. They have to get a link and right now the freqs are being a bit choked out. I'm trying to bump one of the sats we got from SSC into position to to get our own feed for the bod cams, but we're ten mikes out on that minimum. Here we go."

The room lit up a bit as the screens flickered and came to life. The views on all of them were of devastation on a level never before witnessed in a modern city landscape. Shanghai was no longer recognizable. The collective gasp that shot round the room was nearly deafening. Stockwell allowed the group to watch the changing video for a bit before speaking in a hoarse grave voice.

"As you can see, we have never encountered this type of destruction in a major metropolis before. This is unprecedented in our lifetime. We will probably never know the full extent of loss of life and most of those lives will go unrecorded simply due to the immensity of the destruction. Aside from those killed in the fallen towers uncounted more were marched into stadiums and squares and summarily executed. First matter at hand: Rios will be on shortly." He said locking eyes with a worried Samantha, "He is in bad shape, but he's seen the medics." He switched Vasily, "Salem, Vasily, is still in surgery in Beijing. I still do not know exactly what transpired or what his injuries are. Cha Min has a man at that twenty waiting for word. He is a doctor so his report should be accurate."

Finally, he sighed and after looking at the ceiling to try and stop his tears he faced Gil and Page.

"Gil, Page I have to at this time offer you my sincerest sympathies. We have recovered video data from the chopper's feed and from Salem Helmet cam. Her chopper was struck mid-section by surface to air missile. The pilot, Rafi Falcón, tried to set it down but the flak was overwhelming. It spun into the office high rise nearest it and after the building exploded both it and the bird slammed into the bay. You can view this video if you wish, if it will help you to accept this horrible tragedy."

"Alice…you're certain that she was on board?"

"Yes, Gil, she can be heard trying to help Rafi. As the situation now stands the teams are only two klicks out from that location, and should have contact with us soon. I'm sorry, and you both, all of you here that knew and loved her have my condolences."

"Boss, Rios is up, we need to switch to his feed."

"Make it so."


End file.
